Thai film company to retell cave boy saga

A Bangkok production company will be financing the retelling of 12 young footballers and their coach who were freed from a flooded cave.

Members of the Wild Boars football team pray with holy string around their wrists during a ceremony to mark the end of the players' retreat as novice Buddhist monks at the Wat Phra That Doi Tung temple in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province on 4 August 2018. Picture: AFP.

BANGKOK - A Thai-based film company has joined the scramble to retell the dramatic story of the 12 young footballers and their coach who were freed from a flooded cave, one of the producers said Tuesday.

Since the Wild Boars team were extracted from Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand two months ago, there has been a frenzy of media interest in the feel-good tale that captivated the world for weeks.

Documentary makers and Hollywood producers have tussled to get films off the ground, with journalists also spinning book deals from the real-life rescue mission.

A Bangkok production company called De Warrenne Pictures are the latest to agree financing to make their version called The Cave with shooting planned for November.

"The project is already set," producer Katrina Grose told AFP, of a movie that will be directed by Tom Waller, a Bangkok-based filmmaker of mixed Thai-Irish descent.

The operation to save the boys, who wandered into the cave after a football training session and became stuck as floodwaters surged in, involved expert cave divers from across the world.

They were found after 11 days huddled on a muddy ledge without food or fresh water, floodwaters lapping ominously below them.

An ex-Thai Navy Seal died in the run-up to the daring extraction of the group, who were heavily sedated as they were carried, pulled and dragged free from deep inside the cave.

Initially after their rescue officials imposed a blanket ban on coverage, fearing for the boys' mental health with the world's media camped up in rural Thailand.

But efforts to shield the team have crumbled with TV networks jostling for interviews and the Thai junta organising a seemingly endless stream of media events.

In one of the most bizarre, last Thursday, the boys were encouraged to crawl through a mock-up tunnel in a recreated cave in a Bangkok mega mall, where a zone has been dedicated to the rescue.